On Qipao, Flirting, and Buying Drinks
by needdl
Summary: Tenten turned beautiful when she was nineteen.
1. Chapter 1

Tenten turned beautiful when she was nineteen.

Most of her youth was spent focused on developing her skills as a kunoichi. To her, that meant being a fighter, not the seductress that was embellished in romance novels and the minds of civilians.

Her hands were calloused and rough, she had sun-damaged hair, and her skin was unfashionably tan and freckled. She'd get breakouts on her face and back, she constantly had bruises scattered across her skin, and her limbs outgrew the rest of her body until she looked gangly and ill-proportioned.

While the kunoichi of her age group all seemed to possess some sort of beauty- Hinata with a sort of unconscious grace; Sakura with sweet sincerity; Ino with easy confidence- Tenten was pleased by her plainer features and ability to blend in. Beautiful women were targets, expected to achieve constant, impossible standards. They were invariably under the scrutiny of others, walking a tightrope. Beautiful women weren't allowed to be anything else.

It was during the war that her perception of self changed. Ironically enough, it came at a time when most shinobi focused on the fight, on winning their battles. But Team Gai had always been soldiers, a team meant for straightforward combat. Tenten could handle long battles without rest. She had pushed herself to the limit every day in training for the past decade.

So in her admittedly small amount of free time, she found herself looking for something to do. She was surrounded by shinobi from other villages- "Freeeesh meat" Ino had sung into her ear- so she took a page out of the Yamanaka's book, and tried her hand at flirting.

Her initial pursuits were… unsuccessful, to say the least. Fortunately, she didn't embarrass herself, mainly because her attempts came across as normal conversations.

"Oh, did you get issued a new kunai set? Bet that's nice. Easier to slice open some of those damn clones."

"Ouch, what happened to your shoulder?"

Eventually, she keyed in on the concept of body language. A head tilt, a half smile, and a small quirk of the shoulders could go far in conveying more of her intent. She slipped in a little more husk to her voice, a little more tease in her words.

She reduced a poor chūnin to a stuttering, blushing mess every time he saw her. Graduation, she decided.

After the war, Tenten could have fallen back to her usual routine, but she found she wasn't quite ready to give up her newfound hobby.

Neji and Lee were both utterly thrown by the development. The first time she got someone to buy her a drink, they both watched, astounded.

Lee seemed to think she had learned some new jutsu to trick people.

"Tenten! How did you _do_ that! I did not even see you make any hand signs!"

Neji had just stared at her, shock evident in his pale gaze. She met his eyes a little defiantly. The Hyūga clan was probably much too _refined_ to flirt. He was probably a little repulsed that she had stooped so low as to become a tease.

Well, he could choke. She could get free drinks now, whenever she wanted.

In contrast to Team Gai, Ino was thrilled to hear about it. "Yes, Tenten! Break their shriveled little hearts! RETRIBUTION!"

"Kami, Ino, I'm not trying to break anyone's heart!"

"You say that _now,_ but just wait until you get some crusty, full-of-it motherfucker to _cave!_ Make 'em cry!"

Ino had recently started going steady with Sai. She was utterly, disgustingly happy, but missed her own little "endeavours" that she practiced in her youth.

She took the opportunity to live vicariously through Tenten. "Well, you should step it up! You've got the momentum, so take the time to amp it all up!"

"How- what-"

"Update your look! C'mon!"

Tenten had been dragged through various stores, often stuck holding pieces of merchandise as Ino harangued with different employees. At some point in their venture, Sakura had joined them (Tenten had no idea when, she had lost all concepts of time and space by then) and gleefully thrown several pairs of shoes at Tenten to try on.

She had battled it out with both of them until they allowed her to actually select a few outfits that would suit her, then agreed to lunch before getting back at it. She tuned out the other women as they conversed about work in the hospital- Tenten shattered people's bones, she didn't fix them.

Bored, she shifted her attention over the crowd and smirked inwardly as she met the eye of her stammering chūnin. She tilted her head and quirked her lips as she gave him a small finger wave. He flushed beet red and scurried away.

Next to her, Ino and Sakura were cackling at the interaction. "Damn, Tenten!" Ino chortled. "Leave him a _little_ pride!"

Sakura grinned deviously into her drink. "Imagine what would've happened if she had been dolled up!" That was apparently too much for Ino to handle, and she devolved into giggles, barely managing to choke out "She would've killed him!"

Tenten watched with an arched brow as they all but collapsed in laughter. "Maybe you need some more time off. I'm concerned about your senses of humor."

* * *

Ino and Sakura somehow managed to drag out acquiring Tenten's new look over the period of a month. She was going to protest, but then she caught an underlying current of desperation in their actions. The war had taken things from them, and they needed this sense of normalcy. Tenten could give them that.

Neji and Lee still didn't know how to process the changes. Her new hairstyle had nearly killed Lee in his excitement. He had whipped himself into a frenzy, running around her and yelling compliments and questions. At one point he had hoisted her above him and… _yodeled._

Thankfully, Neji had rescued her, delivering a sharp rap to Lee's stomach and pulling her away by her waist.

She grinned breathlessly up at him. "Thanks."

He stared at her a moment, before tugging the end of her braid and giving her a small nod.

Lee was upon her again seconds later, prodding at her hair and asking her to give him a braid as well. She grinned teasingly. "All right- braid train! I'll be the caboose, Lee is in the middle, and Neji-"

"No."

"Please, rival! I promise to make you look super cool and youthful!"

"Absolutely not."

* * *

Her decision to wear a dress to training sent Neji spiraling into a fit.

"It is _not_ appropriate attire, Tenten!"

"What?! Plenty of kunoichi wear dresses and skirts and do just fine!"

"It's not about them!"

"So it's about _me_!"

"Obviously!"

"You have a problem with _me_!"

"I- that's not what I-"

"Point taken, Neji! I'm not allowed to do anything that upsets your Hyūga decorum!"

"For heaven's sake, Tenten, most of your attacks are aerial!"

Tenten stared at him in silence, watching a flush spread across his cheeks as he glared at the ground by her feet. Finally, she muttered "What?"

He wrenched his gaze to hers. "Your attacks are aerial. If you fight in a dress or skirt, people will- they could-" Neji choked around the words.

Tenten found some amusement in the situation, despite her lingering anger. "You think I haven't realized that? I have fishnets on, plus shorts." She hiked up the edge of the dress to show him, but he let out a scandalized sound and tore his eyes away. " _Tenten_!"

"We've been teammates since we were twelve, Neji! I think it's okay if you see my _completely covered_ legs."

He about-faced and marched away, appalled. She threw up her hands and turned towards her scrolls, deciding to ignore him.

After a tense few days between the two of them, with Lee picking up on their moods but choosing to ignore it, Neji had grown accustomed to her new clothes. He finally admitted, very tersely, that she had ensured she was always appropriately covered.

He did nearly pop a vein when she let Ino pierce her ears. In all fairness, she did lean towards earrings that dangled, which could genuinely be hazardous. She let him have that one, and didn't wear them to their spars.

Neji still scowled when she wore earrings out, but she'd found that they glinted enticingly in low lighting and there was no way she'd give them up.

* * *

Over the course of the next few months, Tenten continued to make slight changes to her wardrobe and habits. Sakura bullied her into a skincare routine, which Tenten mainly used because she liked the citrus smell of her face lotion. Lee evidently did too, given his habit of squishing her face in his hands and delicately sniffing her forehead.

When she painted her nails for the first time, Neji had abruptly halted in the middle of their spar, clasping her hand in his and examining her fingers closely. She flushed a little and instinctively jerked away. He let her hand slide from his, murmuring "It looks good." She squeaked out a thank you, face burning, but she refused to contemplate exactly why.

Neji seemed to read something in her expression that amused him. He smirked a little, but thankfully said nothing as he took a position to resume their spar.

* * *

One day during their training, Lee literally flexed so hard his sleeves fell off. Tenten laughed herself hoarse.

In typical Lee fashion, he decided to roll with his new wardrobe ("A new look just as you, Tenten!") and spent much of the next few days heavily debating whether to shave his armpits or not.

* * *

Tenten went out for drinks with Temari and Sakura one night while the ambassador was in Konoha. Apparently, they had met up on one of Naruto's self-defined "guys' nights", and wound up crashing it.

(Shikamaru certainly didn't seem to mind.)

After watching Tenten and Sakura's increasingly drunken contest of "Get a cutie to buy me a drink", Neji apparently cracked. "If you want free drinks, Tenten, then I'll buy them for you. Stop engaging with all of these strangers."

Sakura jerked her head up from where it was slowly lowering onto the table. "What? Who's engaged?" She blinked at both of them. "You two? I didn't even know you were together!"

Neji gritted out "We aren't." Tenten patted her friend's arm comfortingly. "Nope. Not dating." She wrinkled her nose in thought. "Shikamaru and Temari are, though."

Sakura swiveled in her seat to face the couple. "So _they're_ engaged?"

Neji snapped " _No"_ just as Tenten said "Maybe?", tilting her head and considering the couple in a new light.

"No one's engaged," Neji corrected. They both ignored him, choosing instead to coo over Temari and Shikamaru from afar. He shook his head at them and turned back to his conversation with Shino and Kiba.

A few minutes later, as she and Sakura concluded a very serious discussion on rings ("... shiny." "Yeah!") Tenten had reached the bottom of her glass. She frowned distastefully at it, then remembered what Neji had said earlier.

"Oh!" She turned to him with a happy smile. "Neji! I need a new drink!"

He looked at her empty glass, then frowned at her. "You've had enough."

Tenten was devastated. "But you said you would!" She leaned forward to dig her nose into his shoulder. "Neji!"

"No."

She scowled against the fabric of his shirt. "So you're a _liar._ "

"I suppose so. Get a water."

" _Water_ ," she muttered disdainfully. Tenten made no move to sit up, instead resting her forehead on his arm. He smelled nice, especially considering he'd been at a bar all evening.

The rest of the night blurred around her. True to Neji's (stupid) wishes, she didn't have any more alcohol. She was still feeling resentful of him, though, and chose to inconvenience him as much as she could by physically obstructing his arm from moving with the weight of her body.

 _That'll show him,_ she thought to herself as he wrapped the same arm around her shoulders and chafed her skin when she started feeling cold. _Telling me to drink_ _ **water.**_

She kept up her inner tirade as he wrapped her coat around her shoulders while instructing Naruto to walk a drunken and overly confident Sakura home. Tenten had worked herself into a right fit by the time Neji unlocked her apartment and ushered her in with a light touch to her back.

Tenten spun to face him, one hand on her hip and the other prepared to gesture wildly to articulate her point, and found him neatly lining up her shoes on the mat by the door. It was such a Neji-like action that she couldn't help but feel a rush of fondness for her teammate.

Her ire gone, she walked forward and slumped onto his back, sighing into his hair. "Thanks for walking me home, Neji. Even though I'm drunk and slobbery."

He turned to face her. "You're welcome. You should get to bed."

"Yeah. Ugh, Sakura's not even going to be hungover tomorrow. Stupid medic skills."

Neji made a noncommittal noise. She realized she was still hanging limply with his body supporting her. Rather than moving, Tenten lifted her head up to rest her chin on his chest. He frowned down at her disapprovingly, and she reached up to run her thumb along the crease between his brows.

"If you keep making that face, it'll freeze like that," she informed him. He jerked away and frowned even harder. "Bed, Tenten." He turned and walked further into her home.

She stood where he had left her alone, hand slowly lowering as she stared after him. Finally she voiced the concern that had been in the back of her mind since the end of the war.

"Neji… are you upset with me?"

His voice called back from her kitchen, "You did drink a lot, which was in poor judgement."

"Not about the drinking. The… other stuff. The fact that I'm- that I'm acting more feminine."

She chewed her lip as the silence drew on. Finally he walked back into the hallway, drying his hands on a dishtowel. "Why would I be upset about that?"

"I don't know, you tell me. You've been acting weird about it."

"I have not-"

"Yes you have! You get all uppity whenever I talk to someone in a flirty way, and Kami knows you threw and absolute _fit_ when I started wearing training _qipao_ -"

"Don't turn this into something it isn't, Tenten."

"I'm not though!" Tenten was drunk, exhausted, and terrified of his answer. She felt a sting of tears behind her eyes and did her best to suppress it. "You've barely talked to me in the last few weeks! There's no other explanation except that you think I'm becoming some sort of- some sort of _whore_ or something just because I dress up more now!"

"Don't be ridiculous," he snapped.

"Well, I'm so sorry for offending your fucking sense of propriety, Neji." Despite all of her efforts, Tenten felt her eyes starting to water.

"Would you stop talking and let me explain things to you?!" Neji was wringing the dish towel in his hands, muscles tense and anger in his eyes. She glared at him resentfully. All she wanted to do now was go into her room and bawl her eyes out, but Neji was blocking her path.

"I don't think any differently of you, Tenten."

"Bullshit."

"Are you going to let me finish?"

"No." She took a few steps towards him, indicating the door with her thumb. "Leave."

He gaped at her, incredulous. "I'm serious. Get out. I don't want to talk to you."

Mustering himself, he replied quietly, "No."

She glowered at him through eyes that she was sure were red-rimmed with alcohol and tears. He was clearly serious about his intent to remain, so instead she began walking past him towards the bathroom.

Neji caught her wrist just as she had nearly gotten out of arm distance. "You can't start an argument like that and not even allow me to _speak._ "

"I just did." She yanked her arm. "Let go."

"Will you let me talk to you?"

" _No."_ Damn it all, she was starting to cry in front of him. Hopefully he wouldn't notice-

"Tenten?" Damn it all. She turned her face away, but it was too late. He'd already seen her tears spill over.

He drew her closer to himself, and she couldn't muster the willpower to resist.

Neji was utterly astounded to see her crying. His hand locked around her wrist slid up to cup her elbow, and the other hovered in the space in front of her face. He seemed like he was going to lift her chin and force her to face him, but he eventually pulled his hand back. "Tenten, please let me talk."

She stared down at his shirt, refusing to acknowledge him. He continued on anyway.

"Of course I don't think any less of you. You've proven your character to me countless times over." As he was speaking, Neji had been drawing her closer, and she found herself a few inches from touching him.

"I… I have never been very good at expressing myself. I was treating you poorly and didn't even realize it." He finally raised his other hand and slid his fingers under her palm, lifting it from where it was hanging limply at her side. "It's… it's just very different to see you like this. You didn't seem interested in… in this sort of thing, I'm not sure what to call it."

"Ino's been calling it my Sexy Tenten Unveiling." She muttered into his clavicle. Without realizing it, she had pressed herself against him and relaxed. His chin rested on top of her head.

At her comment, he coughed lightly in embarrassment. She smiled and closed her eyes. No way would he say the word "sexy" out loud, especially if she was being described. He would find it wildly inappropriate.

"Be that as it may…" he began. She bit back a laugh and moved her arms to wrap around his waist. Neji paused again, his arms hovering awkwardly in the air for a moment as he struggled with where to place them. He finally settled them over her arms and waist. "It was difficult to reconcile this new image with your old one at first. I let that affect how I treated you, and for that I'm deeply sorry."

"It's alright," Tenten sighed, leaning even further into his embrace. He was supporting nearly all her weight now. "I'm sorry I started an argument and then didn't even let you talk."

The pressure on her head lifted for a moment, before briefly concentrating into one area at her hairline and then returning. "It's fine." _Did he- did he just kiss my head?_

A wave of dizziness hit her, and she sagged against Neji until her vision righted. _Ohhhh drunk._ Tenten could hear her teammate calling for her concernedly, but couldn't muster the willpower to respond for a few seconds. Finally she righted herself, reluctantly pulling herself from him. "I'm okay, Neji. I think I just need to sleep."

He nodded, his hands still supporting her at her elbows. "Are you going to be fine on your own?"

"Yes."

"I'm going to go home, then. Please make sure you drink some water. I'll come by in the morning to check on you."

She hoped that her expression wasn't showing the tenderness and gratitude she was feeling. "I- thank you, Neji." Overwhelmed by his thoughtfulness, she quickly flung her arms around his neck and dug her nose into his jaw. If her lips brushed against his face for a moment, well, it couldn't be helped.

Tenten stepped back from him before he could react. She brushed her bangs back from her eyes and gave him a sincere if awkward smile. "Good night."

He smiled back, his eyes open and unguarded. "Good night." He backed a few paces towards the door, then seem to muster something within himself and stopped short. "And the- your new wardrobe- it's-" He paused, obviously struggling, then blurted, "You're beautiful."

They stared at one another a moment. Tenten felt a flush that had nothing to do with alcohol bloom across her face. Neji seemed startled by his own candidacy.

Finally Tenten let out a tiny noise that may have been a thank you. Neji certainly chose to take it as such. He gave her the most uncomfortable nod she had seen out of him since he was fourteen and swiftly exited her apartment, ears burning.

Tenten buried her scarlet face in her hands and sank down to the floor, biting back the raptor-like screech that was rising in the back of her throat.

 _Oh. My. GOD._

That didn't- that didn't _mean_ anything, did it? Neji was awful at giving compliments. That was just another awkward attempt-

The raptor screech worked its way up her throat and out her nose. She grinned helplessly into her hands. That wasn't just a compliment, and they both knew it. That was a statement of interest and intent.

She'd been so busy exploring this new side to herself that she hadn't noticed Neji steadily working his way closer to her. He'd practically been dating her behind her back.

Tenten brushed her fingers over her hairline and smiled at the ground. She was going to make out with him _so hard_ once she was sober.


	2. Chapter 2

The surprise second chapter that i _also_ didn't know what coming! crazy.

quick aside- a more ~explicit~ version of this chapter is posted on ao3. if you're interested, my account is under the same penname, and you should be able to find my work in the nejiten tag.

* * *

If there was one thing that Neji _didn't_ like about Tenten's new appearance, it was her hair.

He'd spent an (unhealthy) amount of time in his mid-teenage years gazing somewhat yearningly at the back of Tenten's neck, watching her muscles shift as she tilted her head this way and that, counting the freckles that appeared after days in the sun, tracing his eyes over the shockingly delicate-looking protrusion of her spine.

After the war, he was able to step back a little, and savor the friendship between them. Tenten had been in his life for a long time, and he hoped she was there to stay. Even if he was going slightly more insane with the dawning of each day.

It was just the fact that- well, Neji had realized a long time ago that Tenten was his First Love (here he reprimanded himself slightly, because he'd apparently gone and turned into a romantic without so much as a moment's notice), as in the First Love that he could get over but would shape his future romantic relationships as a golden standard.

He disliked it, most of the time, because Tenten deserved more than the rose-colored glasses he tended to don. She deserved him as her friend and as someone who supported her unselfishly, but also she needed him to push her- not only in training, but as a person. If he let her get her way- because it made her adorably smug, which in turn made _him_ feel self-righteously satisfied, as if to say _Look at her and how captivating she is, I put her in this mood, you could never hope to do the same_ -

In any case, if Neji allowed himself to allow _Tenten_ to indulge in her every mood- well, she probably would have broken into at least half a dozen weapon stores by now, and gleefully made off with the goods.

It had been very hard sometimes. In one instance just before the war, Team Gai went out to celebrate one of Gai's victories against Kakashi. ("HA! I ALWAYS KNEW I COULD WHISTLE WITH MORE CRACKERS IN MY MOUTH THAN YOU, KAKASHI!" "Yes… congratulations, Gai." "SUCH A HIP RESPONSE! MY RIVAL IS TRULY THE COOLEST SHINOBI OF THE LEAF!"

"I don't think Kakashi-senpai actually knows how to whistle," Yamato muttered. "I think he was using a genjutsu, and then just decided he'd rather eat the crackers."

"Kakashi's actually the biggest loser in Konoha," Sakura agreed. "Only Gai thinks he's cool.")

The celebratory dinner was the first time Neji had been around Tenten when she was tipsy, and she turned out to be whiny, self-righteous, and prone to chills.

Simply put, it meant she got offended easily and would only sit next to people who agreed with her, then migrated slowly towards them until she was pressed closely against them in an attempt to leech heat off of them.

Simply put, it meant that she decided Neji was her favorite person after he agreed with her that Gai and Lee were talking loudly (he hadn't even thought they were _too_ loud for the restaurant, as she had been saying, but she ignored his tacit disagreement in favor of frowning reprovingly at Gai and Lee's _verbal_ disagreement) and had determinedly seated herself at his side, easing slowly more into his ribcage as he watched and felt her movements in mild panic.

Eventually, she had turned towards Neji with a pout on her lips and said plaintively, "Neji, I'm cold."

Neji stared rigidly down at the table in front of him, contemplating if it'd be faster to jump out a window or just spontaneously combust. Tenten would probably be able to catch up to him if he ran for it, even while drunk, so combusting seemed to be a better plan.

She prodded at his side with her finger. "Neji. I'm cold. I'm cold, Neji. Nejiiiii."

Mustering himself, (and glaring across the table at Lee, who was watching him with a knowing and joyous grin (because of course Lee knew about how Neji felt for their team's beloved Weapons Mistress; he was Neji's best friend, much as the Hyūga tended to act otherwise)) Neji turned to gaze down at Tenten. "So?"

Looking at her was a mistake. She stared up at him with impossibly wide eyes, her mouth still puckered in a pout. Neji watched, enthralled, as she blinked slowly up at him, her eyelashes fluttering. Had they always been so dark?

"So I'm cold."

"You've said that." (He was impressed he was still able to talk aloud, to be honest.)

She scowled up at him. "Your face said that."

"Witty," he said dryly. He turned back towards Gai and Lee, about to ask Gai to elaborate on a likely embellished account of an old mission, when he felt Tenten poke at him again. A little irritated, but mostly nervous, he snapped his head around to look down at her again. She was frowning now, looking thoughtful.

"I want to go home. Will you walk me home?"

It seemed like such a reasonable request, and such a smart choice, that Neji agreed. They said their goodbyes to Lee and Gai, the former grinning wildly at Neji as the latter cheerfully finishing off Tenten's unwanted dumplings ("I want extra dumplings! I'm _hungry!"_ followed shortly by "This is too many dumplings. I'm full. I don't want them.")

Tenten was shivering slightly as they walked, and he pulled her closer to him by her wrist so that she walked tucked into his side. It was so she could warm up a little. Really. No other reason at all.

* * *

Fortunately, he was dating Tenten now, which meant that he could- well, he could spoil her a little bit. Most of the time this meant buying her expensive weaponry, because she would absolutely never refuse it. She didn't like it as much when he tried doing things _for_ her, like when he offered to sharpen the rest of her kunais when she was in a hurry to leave on a mission. She liked doing things herself, after so long refining her techniques all on her own. ("Well, sure, Neji, you understand how _most_ kunai are sharpened. But I have some that require a _particular_ technique, and-" "I understand, Tenten. You don't want me touching them." "Yeah. Hands off.")

( _That_ particular phrasing had led to a very nice period of time in which Neji experimented with _what,_ exactly, he was supposed to keep his hands off of. Mostly just her weapons, it turned out.)

Most of the time, they didn't exchange displays of affection while they were in public, not even when they first started dating and were very much absorbed with one another. Tenten felt uncomfortable with the idea of people watching them, as did he, and to him such actions seemed performative most of the time. Neji was content to keep his affections for when they were in private.

Or at least mostly in private. Their first festival they attended as dates, she'd kissed him in front of Lee and Ino (and Sai, technically, but he'd informed them he was there as Ino's arm candy- to which the Yamanaka grinned and patted his rear.) Neji didn't mind Lee being there- it was a short peck, nothing that would make either of them uncomfortable, but he could have done without Ino's raucous cat call.

Of course, when he looked at Lee he was standing there with his lip wobbling and waif-like tears trembling in his eyes, but that was actually sort of an underreaction for Lee. Neji appreciated his efforts to dial it back.

They were approaching their five-month anniversary now, and Neji had been trying to think of how Tenten would like to spend it. Hanabi had been nice enough to point out that _hopefully_ she'd like to spend it with him, but he wouldn't really know for sure now would he? She was really such a charming girl.

Ignoring that, because it seemed to him that his girlfriend would want to celebrate their anniversary _with_ him (and really, Hanabi, thank you so much for putting that thought into his head), Neji was trying to decide it Tenten would rather plan something with him, or let him surprise her. She tended to forget about celebratory dates that involved her- she'd only remembered her birthday in the past because Team Gai always celebrated with her. She was better at remembering theirs and her other friends', so maybe because it was a date that involved _him_ too-

Neji was just going to have to ask her if she wanted to do anything in particular. She'd probably be fine with staying in and- well.

* * *

Neji spent a week carefully watching Tenten to see if she would drop any indications that she either remembered their anniversary or that she wanted to do anything in particular to celebrate.

So far he had nothing, but she had caught his gaze a few times and looked away with a slight flush, so at least he knew that he was actually able to fluster her. It had seemed very one-sided for a while. Tenten liked to tease him and had him blushing at her actions more often than he cared to admit.

However, she was just as horrible at responding when _he_ teased her.

In the first month they went out, they found themselves in a continuous loop of having to inform people that they were, in fact, dating. Tenten had apparently figured Ino would just tell everyone immediately and they wouldn't have to worry about it, but Ino had proven to be surprisingly reticent.

Neji had several redundant conversations wherein he casually dropped information that only made sense if the other knew of the change in their relationship.

"Wait- why would Tenten be at a Hyūga event?"

"I brought her as my date."

"What? Date?"

"...Yes?"

"Why'd you bring her as your date?"

"It made sense, given the fact that I'm dating her."

"Wait, _what?!"_

"... Ah."

They had been on their way to attending their monthly dinner with the other members of the Rookie 12 (those that were in Konoha, at least. Between diplomatic missions and vagrant wandering they were lucky to get eight of them together). Tenten had been teasing Neji about the fact that they never held hands when they walked, telling him that no one knew they were together because they never acted like a couple. She'd been happily telling him some of the ways he could "prove it" to everyone- "Why don't you just pin me to the wall and kiss me breathless? Or give me a hickey?"

Neji had felt a flush beginning on his cheeks, and desperately fought it down. She loved flustering him, but now was especially not a good time. They were about to meet with a group of friends- and in his case, family. He did not particularly feel the urge to display that he could, in fact, exhibit the infamous full-faced Hyūga blush.

They'd entered the restaurant, and in the midst of the greetings and flurried movements as people shuffled their way into seats, Neji just barely heard Kiba mutter, "Man! They're finally dating! You can barely even tell!"

Though the recipient of this statement- Shino- did not respond, it did spark a small idea in Neji's mind that would address their relationship and, more importantly, get back at Tenten for teasing him.

Quickly, before Tenten had a chance to sit, he grasped her hand in his and tugged her down until she was sitting in his lap.

Her spine went rigid. "Neji- what are you-"

He put his lips close to her ear and murmured, "I'm proving it, Tenten." He did not mistake the shiver that went down her back.

Ordinarily, he would not have performed such an action, but the group was in a private room and the food had already arrived. Naruto waggled his eyebrows at them, and Lee cried silently for a few minutes, but the rest of their friends caught the look in both Neji's and Tenten's eyes and said nothing.

Which was lucky, because if they had Neji may have been murdered by an embarrassed girlfriend before the night ended. As it was, she clenched her fingers painfully into his shoulder and nearly bit his hand off when he teasingly held up some sake to her mouth. (He made sure to do it when no one was watching.)

"I'm going to _kill_ you," she hissed. "I'm going to hang you with rope made of your own hair."

Her back was to him as she faced the table, and her form was warm and pleasant-smelling in his lap. He brushed her braid to the side and pressed his lips against her skin for a few seconds. "Tenten, have you heard the phrase ' _can dish it out, but can't-'"_

"Shut up," she snapped back, digging her nails into his knee. He gently slid one hand under her shirt and along her hipbone, absently stroking it with his thumb. She shivered, again, but surprisingly fell quiet.

He should have been more suspicious, but he was distracted by Kiba trying to get Naruto in a headlock. The rest of the table flew into an uproar, as it often did, and amidst the chaos of Sakura bellowing instructions and Lee's loud cheering, Neji felt Tenten slowly settling in against his chest. He paid no attention to it until she started squirming around.

"Tenten-"

"Just getting comfortable," she said easily. She continued to move around in his lap, pressing against him as much as she possibly could, and he abruptly realized what sort of "reaction" she was trying to coax out of him.

He clenched his hands around her waist in an effort to hold her still. "Stop that."

She cocked her head and grinned at him over her shoulder, eyes widened in innocence even as a her lips twisted saucily. "I'm just sitting in your lap like you wanted."

Neji glanced covertly around at the chaos around them. Everyone was still distracted by the wrestling forms of Naruto, Kiba and- Sakura, naturally. As Neji watched, Naruto kicked out a leg and swept Shikamaru onto the floor, where he laid spreadeagled on his back and stared up at the ceiling with no efforts to move.

Neji leaned back into Tenten. Once more sweeping the braid to the side- it always moved to cover her neck, and it irritated him to no end- he trailed his fingers over her spine, pressing his thumb into the base of her head and slowly massaging at her scalp. She hummed happily and leaned into the pressure, and he coaxed her head back until she had it draped over his shoulder.

Tenten looked up at him in a mixture of irritation and contentment. "That was a mean trick."

He kissed her temple. "It worked." She rolled her eyes, then swiftly leaned in and kissed his cheek before sliding off of his lap into the open seat next to him. He gave her a small smile and passed her sake and her plate back towards her, privately glad that she had ended things before they escalated more.

She gave him a small, almost shy smile, ducking her head a little and trying fruitlessly to push back her bangs behind her ear. He was just reaching out his hand to help her when Lee crashed into the table between them.

He gazed up at them from upside down, his back half-off the table in what looked like a very uncomfortable position. They stared back at him in shock (but not very much, because destruction of private property was bound to happen at _some_ point when the Rookie 12 tried anything as a group), as Lee flicked his eyes between the two of them. "Hello!" He chirped. "How are things?"

"Good," Neji said. Tenten silently offered Lee a piece of meat, holding her chopsticks to his mouth until he opened it to accept the food. He chewed and swallowed. "Thank you, Tenten!"

"Welcome. How's the fight?"

"Wonderful! My blood is pounding in my veins!"

"Oh, good. Make sure you give more than you get, hm? Show him what the students of Maito Gai are made of."

Lee's eyes lit up. "Yes! For you, Gai-sensaaaaaaii-!"

He leapt to his feet and charged back into the fray.

Tenten laughed. "Classic Lee."

Neji said nothing, but he smiled at her and brushed his thumb across her knuckles.

* * *

Later, Neji walked Tenten back to her apartment as he always did. (On the surface, it was because he was chivalrous. In actuality, it was because he wanted to spend as much time as he could with her and elongate their evening. Tenten said he was secretly very romantic. Lee said he thought it was cute. Tenten hadn't known Lee was eavesdropping, and smacked him with a mace.)

They were both a little tipsy and couldn't quite stop themselves from touching each other- twining fingers, touching each others' waists, (Tenten in particular liked to snake her hands under his shirt to rest over his ribcage), light kisses to each other's faces that hardly felt like anything at all. It came as no surprise to Neji that when they reached her apartment, Tenten turned to him and pressed her mouth to his, humming a little as he drew a little closer to her and rested his hands on her back.

They lingered for a few moments, resting together in a warm kiss that made Neji's chest feel light. He peered at her through his eyelashes, noting the barely-there freckles that spanned across her cheeks and nose.

She pulled back from him, one hand resting against his shoulder and the other playing idly with his hair. Tenten peered up at him with a strange look in her eyes, sinking her teeth into her lip in a way that immediately drew his focus.

She spoke before he could lean down and kiss her again. "I think you should come in."

This wasn't an entirely new situation. He'd gone into her apartment on multiple occasions before, with and without the rest of Team Gai. They'd certainly got up to some unchaperoned "alone time" behind her closed door before, but never quite this late, and never with Tenten looking at him like _that._

Panicking a little, he nodded mutely, and Tenten somehow unlocked her door without turning around and stepped slowly backwards into her apartment, burning gaze locked on his as she pulled him by his waistband.

Once he was inside, she closed the door and blanketed them in darkness. Neji's pulse skyrocketed as he felts her hand slowly slide along the inside of his waistband, shifting over the fine hair normally concealed by his clothing. With some difficulty, he swallowed nervously.

For all the time they'd spent together, for all of the times they'd spent wrapped in each other- Tenten's hands clutching at his back, his shoulders, Neji gripping the underside of her thighs over her fishnets as their mouths moved together- they hadn't had sex yet.

They'd certainly come quite close- Tenten apparently liked getting his shirt off of him the second she considered them in private enough to do so, and it tended to lead to some rather risque situations. (Both Hinata and Hanabi had walked in on them before. It was… mortifying.)

But this… this was a level of intimacy that he wasn't expecting yet, and it left him reeling. Of course he knew that Tenten found him attractive, the feelings were certainly mutual, but there was a big difference between slipping hands under clothes and taking them off completely.

In his panic- because yes, he definitely wanted to have sex and yes, he was definitely ready but she'd sprung this on him a little abruptly- he blurted out one of the dumber things he'd said in his life: "What do you want to do for our anniversary?"

Tenten's hand, working its way steadily down his pants, froze. There was a pause, during which Neji mentally berated himself because _anniversary? Really? That's what he automatically spoke about to slow things down a little?_

Tenten finally spoke. "Our… what?"

Neji's eyes flickered close in agony. He'd dug this grave, now he had to lay in it. "Our anniversary." He paused, cringing internally, then muttered, "Five months next week."

Tenten was silent again. He could feel her breath against his collarbone, and her fingers tapping at his skin. She started muttering under her breath, and he realized she was counting up to the date.

Even in the middle of his panic and excruciating embarrassment, he felt a curl of amusement. Of course she had no idea it was approaching. Some of the tension had left his body, now that he'd had a moment to accept what was happening.

"Oh, hey." She said, surprised. "That came up quick." She ruminated on it for a moment before declaring, "I know what I want to do."

"Yes?"

"You."

Neji spluttered. "I- pardon?"

He felt her breath on his neck as she shifted closer, and she murmured, "I want to do _you_ for our anniversary. And I want to celebrate early." She pressed an open-mouthed kiss to his neck, slowly undoing the tie of his shirt.

Neji leaned his head back against the door, tilting his chin up until he hit the wood. Tenten's teeth scraped slowly up his neck, nuzzling at his jaw. His hands squeezed convulsively on her ribcage and he did his best to bite back the groan pressing at the back of his throat.

Suddenly a draft of cold air hit him, and he looked back at Tenten, surprised and a little sulky at the sight of her standing a few feet away from him, one hand on her hip as she surveyed his undoubtedly ruffled figure.

She gave him a lazy smirk. "So then, stud, will you be joining me?" All he could do in response was nod dumbly.

Her smirk grew and turned a little predatory. "Great." She did something with the straps of her dress that had it falling into a silken puddle around her feet, a streak of crimson against the wood grain. She casually kicked it to the side as she turned and walked towards her bedroom.

Neji stared after her for a few moments before jolting into movement, following her down the hall with numb steps. In the back of his mind, he thought to himself that if he'd known earlier that she wasn't wearing a brassiere, their evening out with their friends would have ended a lot sooner, and he would have been much faster persuaded into Tenten's bed.

* * *

Neji woke up the next morning feeling pleasantly warm and comfortable, except the mouthful of his girlfriend's hair that he'd managed to catch in his teeth.

He pulled it out with a grimace, and spent the next minute or so picking bits of it out of his mouth. Tenten snuffled quietly next to him, stirring a little and adjusting her position on her side. He looked down at her with what was undoubtedly a very sappy smile, barely tracing his fingers over the back of her neck. She shifted at his touch and her hair fell over her skin, exposing a dark, prominent hickey.

He gaped, completely astounded. He couldn't remember putting that there-

Oh.

 _Oh._

Neji stared up at the ceiling, slightly shocked at his own self-assured behaviour the night before. It had certainly been a far cry from how he'd initially acted when confronted with Tenten's (apparently raging) libido.

Tenten abruptly flipped onto her back and stared up at him groggily. After a few seconds spent scrunching up her face and blinking up at the light, eyes squinted, she met his gaze.

Neji had no idea what to say. How do you address your significant other after your first night together? He licked his lips and thought rapidly- _good morning_ or _you're beautiful,_ or even _I guess it's a good thing you wear your hair like that now, because no amount of makeup will be able to cover the hickey I gave you last night-_

Tenten solved the problem for him by smacking her lips together and muttering, "'Sup."

Neji blinked at her, a little thrown off. Before he could reply, she muttered "Man, do I have to piss" and rolled out of bed and into her bathroom.

 _Oh,_ Neji thought. _I love her._


End file.
